We have a young couple helping us in our church these days - the wife is actually Ukrainian and she is pregnant with their first child.

I’ve been wanting to make her a baby quilt - but actually haven’t really gotten into it. Not sure why (I think I know why - I had originally thought we’d be gone when she had the baby and just put it out of my mind!). I figured I’d get them something they needed after we got back from our trip to the states.

But I finally realized that the time is short - she is due in about 3 weeks. So, I put together this quick and easy baby quilt with simple 4.5” cut squares. Simple. I made it a 10x13 layout so it is about 40”x52”. That way it will last a bit longer than 6 months, I hope. I say quick and easy because I started sewing after our dinner which is at 1 pm - so about 1:45 or so - and I was all finished, ready to put it in the washing machine at 6:30 pm. I had cut most of the pieces in the morning.

I decided to make it a 10x13 layout and because of that I have to cut out 13 more squares during the afternoon sewing session—but mostly I had cut the pieces in the morning.

I had the fun baby fabric from a bunch of fabric we bought from a lady’s stash back in 2015. They were cut offs from a scrubs factory or something - as the pieces are definitely leftover from cutting clothing - you can tell by the shape of the pieces.

I had made Wiktoria a mask with this fabric several weeks ago now, and she thought it was super cute.

So, I decided to just cut it into some squares and get her baby quilt from it. These 4.5” squares are the maximum width I can get from this particular design - the pieces are longer than that, but not wider.

Detour - this is why I’ve come up with some of the patterns I have. These quilts use this ‘scrubs’ fabric - and I tried to leave it as big as I could to show off its beauty!

You can find each of these patterns on the free patterns page here.

—end of detour—-

Anyway…with a lot of stores still closed, I think I’m just going to make up a few flannel receiving blankets from some flannel I have, buy a couple of bags of diapers/wipes, pack it all up together in a reusable shopping bag of some kind and get this gift ready to give to them on Sunday! Diapers and wipes are always practical and useful gifts! And receiving blankets. You really never have too many of those either.

And there you know. This is just one of those little projects I’ve “needed” to do - I’ve been putting it off and finding other things to do/make! I had debated giving them one of the geometrics quilts but the pink/geometrics one I wanted to give to my nephew and his wife for their little girl. So…I made this one for our new friends! (We’ve only known them since last summer.)

This is what I decided to do in the end. I checked out “how to make a receiving blanket” (mostly searching for a standard size) and found this blog post on making a reversible receiving blanket. Now, I never had one of these for any of my kids, but I think they would have been nice. And I’m “over” rag quilts - so why not use the flannel this way?

So, I made her two of these - just finished, in fact. The blog post calls for zigzagging from the edge about 1 or 2” if I remember right. I thought, “Why not use one of my decorative stitches instead of boring zigzag? So I did.

I’m still trying to get things in order every day. I am doing the “turn the timer on for 30 minutes and forcing myself to get some more cleaned up” - no point in showing pictures. I don’t particularly enjoy looking at someone else’s mess - so see no need to share it with you. If I had a before/after - that’s different. I do like looking at those. But I wouldn’t want to share a “before” pic unless there is already an “after” one ready.

And mine isn’t THAT huge of a mess - plus..I just pulled out some more fabrics for ANOTHER quilt I need to make - so guess what? Put away fabrics for a while yesterday, and then today I go and pull a bunch more out. (I’ve put them away since I wrote this.)

It’s never ending. I feel like I need a little maid going behind me!

I know. I need to just learn to do it myself! (I’m working on it!) But I think making the “fabric spread out all over the place” mess must be part of what I like. I like looking at them together and letting my mind dwell on it what will work and what doesn’t work.

(My husband is in his office teaching via Zoom, so I’m trying to be nice and quiet. He told me the sewing machine doesn’t bother him, though - the students are in the Ukraine.) We are getting up and going early these days because he is starting to teach at 7 am our time - which is 8 am Ukrainian time! (He’s teaching the Minor Prophets, for those of you who are curious. It’s a survey of those books of the Old Testament.)

And that’s the latest from here!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!